Youngstown Pickle Fest returns for second year, promotes creativity in community
Pickles come in various shapes, sizes and even flavors, but imagine if they could all be found in one place — Youngstown Pickle Fest turns this dream into a reality.
Youngstown Pickle Fest will return for its second year on Aug. 15 from noon to 7 p.m. at Penguin City Brewing Company, located at 460 E. Federal St. It follows last year’s festivities that received an overwhelming community response, according to Patti Sandlin, Youngstown Pickle Fest coordinator.
“I didn’t really know what to expect,” Sandlin said. “I kind of thought, ‘Oh, we’ll have some people come out and have pickles.’ It blew the doors off. There was 500 people there at 12:15 (p.m.), and it just started at (noon).”
Sandlin worked at Penguin City Brewing Company and proposed the idea of a local pickle festival after experiencing the Cleveland Pickle Fest and Picklesburgh. However, that same year, Sandlin said someone from Cleveland had a similar thought and named it Pickle Palooza.
Youngstown’s response to Pickle Palooza, though, resulted from a lack of locality, according to Sandlin. After its first year and making local history, Pickle Palooza would become history itself.
In its place, the city would find Youngstown Pickle Fest.
Planning for this year’s festival commenced in February, and changes included lengthening its time; enlarging the location’s space; supplying enough food and now having 10 food trucks; and holding a live-music performance by Da Polka Bums from 4-7 p.m.
Vendors will have a pickle-themed item in addition to their regular purchasable products, and attendees can also decorate their own positive pickle with the returning National Alliance on Mental Illness Mahoning Valley. Also coming back this year is the pickle pizza contest.
“We have some food bloggers that are going to be judges, and we’re just kind of amping (the pickle pizza contest) up a little bit more than we did last year, hoping to have more local pizza shops join us,” Sandlin said. “So that was another part of (Youngstown Pickle Fest), too, that I thought was unique, especially to our area being known for pizza.”
Despite Youngstown Pickle Fest being a month away, the festivities begin sooner with its Pickle Preview on Thursday, July 16, from 6-8 p.m. at Penguin City Brewing Company. Sandlin said the preview is meant for vendors to experiment with their pickle products and to show the community a sneak peek of this year’s festival.
“Let’s just kind of do something fun to get some excitement going, kind of test out a few different things, see what the response is and just celebrate a month till pickle fest,” Sandlin said.
The purpose of the pickle fest is more than just about finding and eating the best pickle items in Youngstown; it serves as a way to feature the creativity and community of the city, according to Sandlin.
“Last year, I looked around, and there’s families, there’s little kids getting their face painted with pickles on them,” Sandlin said. “There’s older people dancing and just everybody coming together and just celebrating what’s fun and unique about Youngstown.”
For further information and announcements, visit Youngstown Pickle Fest’s website or Facebook page.